Seeing Red
by samflint98
Summary: A small love story (as requested ;) involving the the kid flash, Wally West and DC's most famous redhead, Barbara Gordon.
1. Chapter 1

Wally broke from his sleep, irritated. Once again he'd woken up during a dream, and once again, he wished he'd remained there. He could never remember the specifics, but the dreams always involved himself and a redheaded girl, and whenever he thought of her afterwards, a warm glow filled his chest. He was on the verge of becoming obsessed with this mysterious figure. After all, it wasn't like there was anything for him to focus on in his normal life, Artemis was gone, and this time he didn't see how he could make it right, his Kid Flash days were permanently behind him, and with it his friends, obviously saving cats from trees was more important to Dick than coming to visit his best friend. Safe to say his job wasn't offering any thrills, how exciting can experimental physics get when you used to save the world from 9 to 5? He caught a brief glimpse of his faithful goggles. Sometimes he wondered what could've been if he carried on with his other life, where would he be right now, instead of wallowing in his crummy apartment all alone. He'd thought of donning the suit once or twice, but going back to the team would feel so awkward now, and Flash seemed to have Central and Keystone pretty much covered, but it always sat at the back of his head, niggling away at him, whenever anyone looked at him walking down the street, or gave him a disdainful look when he said he was a physicist, didn't they know that he was so much more. The sun glinted of their lenses. He rose and softly reached for them and continued to raise them to his face. Suddenly, like they just been resurrected, the LED screens on the inner lens lit up in a frenzy, with red flashing warning symbols blazing around a small number. They were coordinates, to a small building on the east side of the city.

As he burst out the front door of the apartment block, clad in his distinctive yellow speedster suit and in a storm of golden lightning, a large grin cemented across his face. What could he say, one last adventure couldn't do him any harm, right?

Flying along the roads, confused faces greeted him along the way. "Forgotten me already!" He yelled jokingly. He didn't care. He was in his element. Suddenly all of his problems and regrets cleared from his mind and all he could see was the open road in front of him, and the flashing map telling him his distance to his coordinates. It was at this point, when perhaps he was getting a little too distracted by his ever increasing speed, when it happened. A black figure stepped out in front of him and before he could avoid the oncoming danger, he felt his body clash with the unfortunate bystander. He heard a small yelp of confusion and watched the victim fly into a nearby pond with a large crash, whilst he himself was largely slowed the collision. As he slowly opened his eyes, scared to look at the chaos he'd created, he was greeted by a warm feeling flowing into his chest. He watched an angry, smoothly sculpted girl, with flowing red head, mop hair hair back, and release half of the ponds water from her mouth face.


	2. Chapter 2

She approached him, and wiped a small length of pondweed from her face and threw it on the ground. Wally, now completely starstruck and completely fixated on the girl from his dream, felt a large pain emanate on the side of his face, and with that, he felt a small sense of deja vu, like he had just awoken from his dream again this morning. He collapsed to the floor, his body now recognizing the pain of slamming into the red headed girl. This had got to be another dream. Yes. No doubt. I'll wake up in five seconds, and I'll be back to my crummy life, but now even my dreams don't like me. Great, he thought. But to his surprise, he didn't. A bystander tapped his shoulder, attempting to judge if the out of shape hero needed any help. The sensation broke his chain of thought. As he rose, he found himself in the middle of a bustling park in central city in a worn, bright yellow spandex superhero costume. He couldn't be further away from his normal life, and he couldn't be happier for it. Suddenly it occurred to him that if this wasn't a dream, than that meant...that girl! He brushed the concerned man aside and followed what he vaguely thought was the girls direction. He caught a brief flash of red in the crowd, and homed in on it. Despite his speed, he found it hard to keep up with the mysterious girl, a feeling he was not very acquainted with. He remembered his original goal when donning the suit for one last time, and to his surprise, he found himself heading in the same direction as the coordinates. He shrugged it off as coincidence. His original goal could wait, it had done so far. This would however mean that as soon as he had caught her, he wouldn't have to go too far to return to his set course, but to be honest, he didn't have a clue what he would do when he caught her, his last tactic of staring at her didn't seem to work, he recalled as he slowly rubbed the cheek she slapped. This'll be a story to tell our kids when they grow up, he sarcastically thought. As it turned out, he didn't have time to come up with any more tactics, as he had almost caught her. As he pushed through the final barriers between him and his target, he pounced in front of her, grinding her to a halt. "Hold up right there miss," He blurted clumsily, he hadn't done this kinda thing in a while. "We need to talk."

"No we don't, trust me." The girl said briefly before brushing Wally off and attempting to run past him. "Ohhh yes we do, and you're in no position to argue, I was thinking we take a trip to Milan, maybe eat some of the fine Italian cuisine, maybe get up to some mischief." He offered flirtatiously suddenly with a rush of confidence. "You're kidding right? Seriously I don't have time for this." She said agitatedly, briefly glimpsing her watch.

"Heyyy babe, calm down," Wally said sleezily, feeling stupid for even saying it, "you're with me, you don't have to rush anywhere."

A sly smile appeared on the girls face as she bit her bottom lip, "Look don't take this the wrong way," she chuckled "I just have somewhere I desperately need to be right now." With this she finally broke his concentration and bolted away. "I think we can build on that" Wally said to himself, not noticing his thoughts were being spoken out loud. A small pool of interested people had gathered in a small circle around him. "I'd be happy to take you out anytime!" A giddy, green eyed, slightly bronzed girl with large, overgrowing ginger hair wearing an odd purple costume said. Wally shrugged her off with a smile, although he had a strange sense he had seen her from somewhere "Not while I'm on business." He replied with a grin and sped off in accordance with the coordinates on his goggles. It sure is great to be back, he slyly thought to himself. He'd done enough flirting for one day, and he had a strange sense he would somehow bump into the mysterious redhead again. He continued on to the east side, and within minutes arrived at the crummy building. It stood several stories high, in a run down sector of central city. It's crumbling walls instigated a depressing feeling within him. The flashing neon lights outside proudly described how the beautiful women working inside were prepared to entertain any willing customers, and Wally remembered where he had seen this before, he had, with the Flash himself, conducted a raid back in his Kid Flash days, finding many mistreated Immigrants inside, promised an escape from their old lives of turmoil yet forced into another. Despite the new lick of paint and the new signs, he doubted that much had changed. But as he gazed at the entrance, about to consider why on earth his goggles were signalling him here, he was distracted by a more pressing issue. A certain redhead, in a sequined, short emerald dress, working her way past the guards at the entrance.


	3. Chapter 3

"No way…" Wally whispered aloud. My luck can't get any better, take down the bad guys, get the girl, and be back home in time for food, and plenty of it, the sudden burst of speed he let loose today had drained a massive amount of energy from him, not to mention it also happened to be his Love. Before the guards could catch sight of him, he hid behind a nearby trashcan, watching the girls shadow disappear down the entrance to the club. He couldn't get through like this, and there was no way he'd storm in, not without knowing what he was even here for, he'd have to don a disguise and try and talk his way in. He watched a limo drive around the block and a middle aged man, clad in a sharp suit, leave the limo, secretively clutching his briefcase. This was his new persona, his disguise. What could go wrong? Talking is my strong point after all, he thought with a sly cockyness.

15 minutes later, and Kid Flash was nowhere to be seen, but instead a certain well suited teenager approached the entrance to the strip club. "I.D" The guard demanded.

Wally arrogantly held up his newly acquired identification, which the kind businessman he had seen earlier had kindly...offered up...earlier, with some level of encouragement, and stood hesitantly. " Wielder?" The guard said trepidously. "Ummm, ya!" Wally said desperately, quickly trying to remember how Dick used speak when the team went undercover in Germany a few years before. He always did speak so fluently, the locals loved him. A feeling of anger swept over him, at the sense of abandonment he felt from his old friend. Focus Wally, he told himself. "The Dutch businessman?" The guard said with a quizzical look on his face. Wally's face contorted as he attempted to recreate a Dutch accent, whilst also considering if there even was a Dutch accent. "Mhm?" He managed to squeak. After some intense looks from the guard, he finally was given back his Identification. "Well Wielder," The guard sighed, "I hope everything is up to Amsterdam's standards…" With that, Wally let out an overenthusiastic laugh, which almost blew his cover, were it not for a blacked out sports car roaring it's way in front of the guards, which they rushed to as if the crown jewels lay open for the taking. Wally didn't wait around to see who it was, he rushed in the now open entrance, dragging his heavy briefcase with him.

When inside, he was greeted by a young woman, scantily clad in fishnet stockings and burgundy lingerie, he was temporarily distracted by her, she guided him down to his seat and offered him a drink before disappearing behind the bar. It was here he noticed her. The mystery redhead. His mystery redhead, being chatted up by a man twice her age, gold teeth, a scar ingrained in his cheek and a tattoo sprawling across his shoulder with the words "Tough Daddy" etched in. The epitome of class, wally thought sarcastically. No way am I letting that creep take her home. His original motives soon swirled to the back of his head and his fighting face came on. He swaggered over to the bar. He placed himself next to the pair and cooly ordered a beer. "Looks like you've gone down a league from this morning" He whispered in her ear, gesturing at the girls company. A small smile coated her face, her red lips in a desperate battle to remain from outwrite laughing. Her companion was unaware, idly sitting by, talking to what Wally assumed to be a customer of some sort on the phone. "Nice to see you in a different suit, it's nice talking to you without being blinded by that ridiculous yellow thing." She let off defensively, with a hint of pleasure to be talking to someone other than Daddyo over there. Wally was surprised she knew who he was without the mask on and was slightly taken aback for a short while, but it didn't take him long to get back to his feet. "You know me, I like to make a statement." He said egotistically.

"Well you certainly did, in fact I saw many people making statements to the cops, commenting on a hideous yellow bolt hitting a poor, young girl over" She said whimsically. "Well I don't think they could've forgotten the beautiful maiden wearing her pondweed and wet hair combo so elegantly" He retorted. A natural silence fell as the pair smirked. "Maybe if you promise to not push me into a pond again, I'll meet up with again, speedster." She said as she broke the silence.

"Why don't I begin making up for it now?" Wally added optimistically.

"Well-" She began, until a sight caught her eye. There he was. Larger than life. His best friend, Dick Grayson.


	4. Chapter 4

Dick approached without hesitation. "Babs I-" He started, suddenly silenced by what Wally perceived to be the look one ones face if you saw a ghost casually sitting at the bar sipping Martini's. "Wally? Is that?" He stuttered. "Oh you mean me? Your supposed best friend? I'm surprised you even noticed, shouldn't you be off with Bruce or something, Im pretty sure he's the only one on your social level." Wally resentfully blared.

"I came to see-" Dick chortled.

"Me." the redheaded girl muttered, somewhat just as displeased with Wally at Dick's untimely arrival. "Wait, you? But-" Wally said confused, then when his brain had caught up with him, he finally wished he'd never stepped out of the house at all. That's where the girl came from, she was always real in the first place. She was none other than Barbara Gordon herself. Wally hung his head in accordance to the knowledge. His friend had come back, only to destroy his happiness one more time. Babs was in Dick's forever loop of will they won't they, a continuous mix of Dick's care for her and loyalty, combined with the traits Batman instilled in him, solitude, coldness and hardheadedness. His efforts had been in vain. That's all she'd been, a dream. "I see. Well I'll let you two catch up, wouldn't wanna cramp the mighty Graysons style, see you around Babs…" He said mournfully. He couldn't understand why it had not clicked before, her sharp, wry smile, her curved, crimson lips, her long, flowing red hair, the colours of embers themselves. He found himself getting taken away by this envisioning of her. His mystery girl. As he left the bar, his spirits were low, the dream of what could've been destroyed, sealed into every breath that passed through his lips. "Wally, wait!" Babs shouted. As he began to turn around, a beeping began in his left pocket, he'd smuggled his goggles in, with the intentions of continuing his mission as he had first intended as he arrived, this now seemed like an afterthought. He turned to look at babs as he raised the goggles to his face. A flashing red warning light read: Try and outrun this, speedster. Wally had a look of bewilderment, quickly trying to surmise what the message could entail. Meanwhile, blood began trickling down his chest. "Why don't we-" Babs paused mid sentence, intently staring at him. Unlike his partner, Dick, like it was planned, had already sprung into action, swinging himself over the bar and throwing two incapacitating windings into the chest of two burly men bumbling down the hallway at the faltering Wally. Babs, now returning from her state of shock, assumed a similar type of calmness to Dick, pouncing over to Wally and positioning her arms around him as he fell. She quickly began to rip a small amount of fabric from her chest and cover Wally's wound. As she continued, with her arms frantically fumbling around checking his vitals and strapping the makeshift bandage on, Wally caught her hand, and forced her into looking at him. He felt to speak, but his stare described what he wanted to portray. He looked into her deep, emerald, eyes and smiled. His swansong. "Looks like someone finally caught up with me." He gargled through the rising blood escaping through his mouth. Barbara stared uncompromisingly. "Wouldn't be the first time, I remember a certain Seaweed clad girl doing it this morning" She chuckled, holding the pain from her voice. Behind her, Dick had smashed through a door behind the bar, rendering any of the customers in the club, who weren't previously aware of some trouble, slowly gliding towards the exits. Dick himself was ploughing through a stream of bar staff, Escrima sticks making patterns in the air with the escaping electrical bursts, each precise blow rendering the next target down for the count. However, Dick's prime focus wasn't the people and drugs the bar staff were oh so faithfully hiding, but the assassin who to was fleeing the scene. He was enjoying the unexpected assistance of the bar staff, who were hampering Dick's attempts to catch up. Now out of visible distance of his companions, he was unaware of Wally's condition and was focused on catching up. As he sprinted up several flights of stairs, and continued on after Wallys shooter,he reached a close enough distance and launched his final wingding at the assassins foot. The sudden impact on his boot sent him careening off into the distance. Immobilized on the floor, Dick strolled up to him, placing his mask on as he approached. "Game's up, Deadshot, didn't you think anyone would notice you strolling into town?" He questioned.

"Obviously you didn't watch very well, or else you would know you probably need to get your little friend to a hospital right now, I hear curari isn't so good for speedsters...or anyone really." He retorted in a patronizing tone. Dick stood paralyzed. "Save your friend, or catch your foe, oh how tragic." He exclaimed proudly.


	5. Chapter 5

Dick remained cemented to the floor, his loyalty to his friend reappearing, begging him to save Wally, but the honour to his cause also imploring him to stay and finish the job. Dick desperately struggled in his head to come up with a solution, but he knew Lawton was right, he saved wally, and he lost him, there was no way to achieve both. Bruce's mind screamed in his head to finish the job, but, disagreements or not, Wally was and would forever shall be his friend and Dick refused to be as cold as Bruce had been to him. In those fateful seconds, he vowed to redeem himself to Wally, as long as it may take. The truth was, ever since he retired, Dick had lost his grounding figure in his life, without Wally, he forget to lay back every once in a while, to spend time with his friends, forget about a case for a while and relax. It'd turned him into the exact thing he wanted to escape from as Nightwing. Bruce. It'd ruined his relationships, particularly with Babs, who was the last person remaining who put up with Dick's indescrepencies and propensity to disappear, which surprised him, seen as though she'd generally been the first one to lose her temper with him. With due reasoning. He took one last stare at Deathstroke, filled with contempt, and leapt out of the room to get to the injured wally.

Babs was now cupping Wally in her arms desperately trying to hoist him up and move him to the exit, she knew he couldn't carry on much longer. Wally's face had turned and deathly pale, and he had fallen silent, his hand however still grasped tightly to hers. In contrast to before, she was overjoyed to see Dick fly down the stairs. "Dick! We need to get him out now, he's bleeding all over the place!" She screamed, in a mixture of pain and tears. She'd been more affected by Wally's words to her than she thought. "He's been poisoned," Dick snapped Wally's hand away from Babs, to which Wally greeted with a perturbed groan, and jabbed a syringe into him "this should do him for now, I need you to get a car and swing in round front...Now!" Dick ordered. Babs shot him a look of contempt and dragged herself away from Wally whilst heading for the exit. Dick, now assuming the full weight of Wally began following in Babs' footsteps, a trickle of blood marking their way. "Look, Wals," Dick murmured "This probably isn't the best time but…I'm sorry." Wally, despite the drugs flowing round his system and the bullet in his chest, was still functional enough to grasp his words and the rarity of them. "Took you l-l...long enough." He spurted out, in a haze of blood and saliva. Dick's face was graced with a smile. With business out of the way, he focused completely on the task at hand, saving his dumb, bright yellow, best friend.

Babs sped round the curve and slipped into the front entrance with her newly acquired car. She took a second to regain her composure, and hopped out to aid her straggling companions into the back. When she caught sight of the fading Wally again, a stabbing sensation seized her body. She couldn't quite place it, but the last time she felt that way was with…"DRIVE!" Dick commanded from the backseat, cupping wally's head and inject certain fluids into him. Come on Barbara, she thought. For Wally.

An hour later…Central City Hospital:

"Thank god!" Barbara exploded, whilst relieving a deep sigh and hugging the doctor. Wally was delivered just in time and after some lightning surgery, the bullet had been removed and the blood flow had been stopped. "We'll send a nurse round to tell you when you can meet him." The doctor croaked, barely able to breathe under Babs' powerful arms. Realizing his discomfort, she awkwardly let him go and fumbled to a nearby seat next to a composed but clearly annoyed Dick Grayson. "What's wrong?!" Babs said in disbelief, "He's gonna make it." She said, with passion infusing with her voice. "I know and I'm overjoyed as much as you it's just…He beat me again." Dick said with sorrow.

"What, Deadshot? How could you have had expected him though, he had the complete drop on us, we should be happy we all escaped alive..." Barbara retorted. "But he didn-" Dick stopped himself, knowing he had revealed too much. Barbara, understanding the nature of his comment, stepped by in disbelief. "YOU KNEW!?" She screamed, her pain billowed down the hallways.


	6. Chapter 6

"This was your plan all along wasn't it!" Babs bellowed, to such an extent, even Dick was slightly afraid. "Your best friend almost died! Not to mention you lied to me, I thought you'd actually wanted to spend the night out with me like old times, sure the location confused me and it seems obvious now, but I was just happy you even were showing an interest in me!" Dick rose from his chair opposite to Babs and began "But he wasn't-" He mumbled before he was denied from continuing by Barbara "No! Don't use that as an excuse!" She yelled, water slowly collecting in the corners of her eyes "You never change Dick! We just continue on in swings and roundabouts!" She continued in a now venomous tone replacing the previous mournful one, "I can't do this! Go back to your man cave with Bruce and solve crimes if you want too, Im sure you'll live happily ever after…" With that she turned and fled to Wally's room, anger and pain swirling within her in a dangerous concoction, ready to burst.

Dick tried to stop her but his outstretched hand simply slid off her, as if he knew he had to let her go. She was right, Dick thought. He was left in the empty corridor, the slow beat of a heart rate monitor echoing down the corridor from a nearby room, slowly grinding to an unequivocal halt.

Wally slowly stretched open his heavy eyelids, weak with the shock of the trauma. He lifted his naked arm to his face, and examined it in the light of the lamp by his side table. His eyes were completely blurred. Looks real enough, he thought. Shortly after his awakening he was informed of his wound, his miraculous survival and the effect the poison had on his vision, but luckily it was only temporarily. He also was told about how lucky he was to have such brave friends. Friends? He thought. He remembered his day before with mixed emotions. Both his mysteries solved and what had he acquired, a gunshot hole and a broken heart. Not bad going for me, he thought, pitying himself. At least Dick had wanted to fix things, but realistically, how long would that last for though, he thought cynically. His sorrow was broken by a tearful red flash rushing through the door. "You're awake!" A timid Babs spluttered. "Hey...Babs" Wally began, almost forgetting his discovery the previous day. "Look I-" He said, but Barbara flung her arms around him and squashed them. The pair sat together in a tight embrace, the room now deserted but for the pair. Wally felt like it lasted for an eternity and he couldn't of been happier if it did, Barbara Gordon or not, he couldn't deny his feelings for her, at least not to himself. Babs was the first to release herself from him and Wally reluctantly followed suit. "Babs, I don't know if you're gonna like this and I know you have that thing with Dick and all but I-" Wally was stopped by Babs softly planting her lips on his. Slowly, Wally, realising the full enormity of the situation, began to ease up and kiss back. In reaction, Babs slowly caressed her hands around his body and made a move for the bottom of his shirt. As his head slipped through the top, her long, slender fingers seductively slid down his chest. His heartbeat monitor went into meltdown, much to his embarrassment. Barbara simply ripped the diodes of his chest and continued on with her conquest. Finally she eased him back. There she was again. His mystery redhead, his dreamy love. This time though, there was no waking up from this. Maybe the day didn't go to bad after all...


	7. Chapter 7

_I've come back after a short break and upon seeing my first review! (much pride) Yeah small steps but hey ho :p So thanks for that and the one follow, Im glad your enjoying it, if you have any plot points feel free to suggest any, Wally and Bab's future has by no means been decided :)_

_2 months later…_

"Wally…" A soft voice giggled. "Walllllyyy…" It continued. " Hey speedster!" The voice roared as a pillow flew through the air in Wally West's direction. "Wha-" He murmured irritably, attempting to view his mystery assailant. "Unlike some, I actually have a city to protect, you know, being a superhero and all." Barbara Gordon stood in the doorway at the end of his bed, leaning casually to the side in half her costume, grinning in delight at Wally's confusion. "Mehhh, Gotham's overrated, it's your poor boyfriends head that needs saving" He moaned, clutching his forehead. "Awww, is my little speedy hurting?" She asked in a patronizing tone, kneeling by his bed side. "He is…But he could still take on all of your rogues and by finished in one night." Wally retorted with a smirk. "Oh could he now? Well maybe he'd like to accompany one, or would his royal highness prefer to patrol on his own so I might actually be able to stay in bed for once?" Bab's beamed. "Well I think you need the practice...although I'll give you a headstart, I think I saw two face under the covers just a minute ago…" He teased, pushing his luck. "Oh I'm sure lover boy, but if he comes back I'm sure you can deal with him yourself," She replied playfully. "I would love to stay and play nurse, but I do have cases to check out, see you around honey." She lent in for a protracted kiss. Her world slowed in the moment, and her often chaotic thoughts cleared. The truth was, Barbara Gordon had never been happier. Wally stood for everything new about her, everything she never thought she could have before, fun, passion, stability, they had a flat for chirstsakes. All the things Dick could never give her, and she never wanted to look back. As Barbara bounded out of her apartment window, faced head on with the cool spring breeze which fluttered in her cape trails, she truly did feel at peace.

_ 8 hours later… _

"BEEP-BEEP-BE-DEEP-BEEP" "But was it ok-" Wally said morosely, before shooting upright in his bed, his eyes exploding with the invasion of the early morning sun. He slammed his blaring alarm clock, sullenly arose and hobbled barefoot to the bathroom, the cool from the tiles slowly creeping up his toes. He proceeded to prepare for his uneventful day, cleaning himself up to a moderate degree of success, having removed a small patch of fiery red stubble from his chin. Having finished, he inched toward the windowpane, where he had a view over the large expanse of Gotham city. Wally was so utterly content. He had so very little, yet so very much. He had resigned himself to his piece of paradise and as the sun glared over his glistening face, he couldn't have been happier. He had her. "BRRRRRRRR" His phone vibrated on his bedside table. He eased over with a cool precision and slid open the lock. It read:

From: Roy Harper (The Clone one, Wals)

He laughed as he murmured babs' additions to his contacts, although he was beginning to see her reasoning for them.

Message: DUCK.


End file.
